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Lovely Warren: Education crusade is personal

Lovely Warren isn't the first political candidate to call for change in Rochester's schools. She's not the first candidate to outline the unfortunate circumstances that occur in our poorest neighborhoods.

However, she believes a different approach coupled with personal experience will create real change if she is elected mayor.

"I don't believe that anybody is going to come in and save Rochester …" Warren said. "We've been looking for a savior forever. It's time to look at what works, who we are and who we used to be."

Warren, the City Council president, discussed her education agenda with the Democrat and Chronicle editorial board Wednesday. She is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor against incumbent Tom Richards. Green Party candidate Alex White is also running.

Warren said she wants to expand charter schools and create an Office of Educational Accountability. She wants to create a database so people can easily find out schools' test scores and rankings. She would like to see more prekindergarten programs and more education in the community centers.

Warren said she released her education program first because everything starts with education. This focus would help the city's economy because improving the schools would keep people from fleeing to the suburbs, thus maintaining the tax base, she said. Warren said she is waiting to announce her economic plan until after the city budget process is done.

"Education is the great equalizer, it is the pathway out of poverty … it was my family's pathway out of poverty," Warren said.

Money is an issue. She estimates that the accountability office will cost $150,000 to $200,000 to set up. Charter schools will come in with their own money, but the city can help them by designating vacant buildings as schools and providing tax relief.

Fixing education is a long-term solution to the budget woes, she said, because it would help keep people out of jail, reduce crime and keep middle-class citizens in the city.

"You are going to pay on the front end, or you are going to pay on the back end," Warren said.

In a statement, Richards said he has been working to stabilize the City School District, and will continue to do so. The district "Has endured repeated changes in district leadership and one grand plan after another that promised to solve it all. The children were often pawns in an adult game. I have sought a new course. I have actively cooperated with the district and worked to be a willing partner to Superintendent (Bolgen) Vargas, the Board and the unions."

Richards said the schools need to get back to basics, and supports universal preschool and an extended school day. "There will be tens of thousands of children in that public school system for the foreseeable future and I have no intention of giving up on them."

He does expect more charter schools to pop up in the city. "We must be careful of the impact. Cities with a rapid transition to charter schools have seen the collapse of the public system with great damage to many children."

White's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Warren said she has a record of helping bridge gaps through her work on City Council. She spearheaded the Operation Transformation program, which has helped troubled young men connect with career training. She also started a program to help get more minorities into police and fire training by recruiting them through local churches.

"For the first time we were able to graduate a class of police and firefighters that has more (minority) members than ever," she said.

Warren's crusade for better education is personal. She is named after her aunt, who was the first in the family to attend college. She identifies with children who can't focus in school, or get in trouble for fighting, because under the stress of having a father on drugs, once she was that child.

Her parents split, and she grew up with a single mother. She was a success story, and she believes with a better system there can be more like her.

"I knew many people that grew up in a situation where they were poor, but they still beat the odds," she said.